Healing the Pain with a Book
by Bazzano03
Summary: It has been a month since Johnny and Dallas died and Pony-boy has had a hard time dealing with the loss so his brothers decide that they should read the book that Pony-boy wrote and the rest of the gang decides to listen too, will this help him heal or will it make it worse.
1. Chapter 1: Coming Home from Practice

**Healing the Pain with a Book**

**Characters: Pony-boy, Darry, Soda, Two-bit and Steve with Tim and Curly Sheppard coming in later.**

**Time-line: It has been a month since the events of the Outsiders and Pony is in emotional turmoil from the loss of Dallas and Johnny so his brothers decide to help him heal by reading what had happened and the rest of the gang decides to listen to the story as well.**

**Disclaimers: I don't own The Outsiders. The story belongs to me everything else belongs to me.**

**Warning: Everything from what happened will be in in this and the rumble will be pushed up a bit and there will be some profanity, as to that this story will be for teenagers and adults, this will also be in the first person alternating between Pony-boy, Darry and Soda.**

**Chapter 1: Coming Home from Practice**

I was coming home from one day thinking about my friends and wishing that they were still with me and over what had happened because of a group of Socs that did not know when to quit and decided that I should be the victim because I had befriended the girl-friend of one of them. My brothers were worried and I knew that they wanted to help, but I wasn't ready to face up to the memory of what had happened without falling back into hole that I have been ever since the rumble. As I was walking, I saw my friend Two-bit Matthews car pulling up to me with Steve and Soda with him.

"Hey Pony-boy, why are you walking home you know how dangerous it is, come-on get in, and I'll give you a ride home bro." he said with a gentle but worried smile on his face and I thought it over before getting in. As we headed back to my house Soda looked at me. "Pony, I know that you are in pain, but I think it's time that we deal with it. I think that we should read that book you wrote, Darry will be home in an hour and we can start after dinner." he said and I nodded, though I knew that it would help, I didn't want to remember what happened, but if it helped me heal faster it would be worth it, since I could remember them without the pain of the loss for the first time in weeks and go back to the way I was before all of this had happened.

Darry got back from work and had started dinner while I was working on my homework when he called me into the kitchen. "Pony, Soda said that we'd be reading your book tonight, but before we do, I want you to know that I'm proud of you and if you need some support, I'm here if you need it. I may act like I'm too hard on you, but I love you and I want what is best for you." he said and I smiled at him and gave him a hug. "Thanks Darry I love you too, before we read, I should tell you that there is some stuff written about you that will probably hurt your feelings, but this was weeks ago and I don't think like that any more, okay." I said and he nodded a little surprised by that last statement.

After dinner, we went into the living room and I grabbed my book from the bedroom and we got ready to start. "Okay guys, before we get started here, I'm saying that we keep this down slightly since there is going to be some stuff that is going to piss all of you off and that includes what happened with Mrs. Cade and what happened in the park. Darry, like I said in the kitchen there is going to be some stuff said that you aren't going to like and Two-Bit, Steve, what happens before the attack was a mistake on both mine and Darry's part, so don't give him a hard time when I reach that part. One more thing, we're going to be passing the book in a circle so we each get a couple of chapters." I said and they all nodded as I opened up the book to chapter 1 and took a deep breath.

**That's it, I'm going to take time with this story, but I'm going to work it out, so be patient and stay gold.**


	2. Chapter 2: The Opening

** Healing the Pain with a Book**

**Characters: Pony-boy, Darry, Soda, Two-bit and Steve with Tim and Curly Sheppard coming in at the first chapter before the novel opens.**

**Time-line: It has been a month since the events of the Outsiders and Pony is in emotional turmoil from the loss of Dallas and Johnny so his brothers decide to help him heal by reading what had happened and the rest of the gang decides to listen to the story as well.**

**Disclaimers: I don't own The Outsiders. The story belongs to me everything else belongs to S.E. Hinton.**

**Warning: Everything from what happened will be in in this and the rumble will be pushed up a bit and there will be some profanity and a talk about violations issue as well, as to that this story will be for teenagers and adults, this will also be in the first person alternating between Pony-boy, Darry and Soda.**

**Chapter 2: The Opening Salvo**

**Darry POV**

I watched my brother as he took a deep breath as he got ready to start the book and I knew this was hard on him since even though it had been a month he was still healing and I knew that with this he would be able to heal, since our parents were killed a little over eight months ago and I had taken over custody of both of them and two of our gang had died barely two months ago and this was all because of a group of high school spoiled rich kids who couldn't take the idea that one of them could be friends with one of us.

As I sat there, I realized that he needed us more than he knew and we were going to make sure that he never lost us too. As he got ready to start Steve and Two-bit showed up with Tim and Curly Sheppard right behind them and knew that Two-bit had blabbed. "Two-bit, what the hell are you doing, this was so we could help him heal not make things worse!" I snapped at him and before Two-bit could say anything Tim said it for him. "Darry we have been wanting to know the truth as to how two us were killed in the space of week and even though our gangs are rivals we are friends, and this will help all of us to heal at once." he said and I knew he was right. "Alright, just watch it because there could be some fall out from this later, okay." I said and they both as I looked at Pony-boy and he gave a nod as he looked at the chapter and started.

_Chapter 1_

_When I stepped out into the bright sunlight from the darkness of the movie house I had only two things on my mind: Paul Newman and a ride home. I was wishing that I looked like Paul Newman, he looks tough and I don't, but I guess my own looks aren't so bad I have light-brown almost red hair and greenish-gray eyes. I wished that they were more grey as I hate most guys with green eyes._

"Well that's funny, Pony since there is a person with green eyes in here, man" Curly said laughing as Tim looked a little surprised and Pony looked sheepish as he looked at Tim. "I'm fine with you Tim, since you are a friend." he said and Tim smiled as he nodded and I hid a smile at that myself as we turned back to the book.

_But I have to be content with what I have. My hair is longer than a lot of boys wear theirs, squared off in the back and long in the front and sides, but I am a greaser and most of my neighborhood rarely bothers to get a hair-cut, besides I look better with long hair. I had a long walk home with no company, but I usually lone it anyway, for no reason except that I like to watch the movies undisturbed so I can get into them and live them with the actors. _

_When I see a movie with someone it's uncomfortable, like someone reading over your shoulder. I'm different that way like my second oldest brother Soda who is sixteen going on seventeen can never sit still long enough to enjoy a movie or read a book and my oldest brother Darrel who we called Darry works hard and long to be interesting in a book or drawing a picture so I'm not like them and the rest of our gang doesn't dig movies or books the way I do. For a while there I thought I was the only one in the world who did, so I loned it._

"Well you don't have to worry about loning it anymore bro, if you want to go see a movie we can stay quiet while we are there." I said and he smiled as we turned back to the book and I saw that the others were surprised, but they smiled as well and I knew that both of our gangs were on the way to being friends.

_Soda tries to understand which is more than Darry does, but then Soda is different from anyone, I mean he understands everything, almost. Like he's never always hollering at me or treating me like I'm six instead fourteen, I love Soda more than I loved anyone, even more than mom and dad. He's always happy go lucky and grinning while Darry's hard and firm and hardly cracks a grin at all. But then he has been through a lot in his twenty years, grown up too fast, while Soda will never grow up at all. I didn't know which way was best, I'll find out one of these days._

"I'd say that you can split those two things into parts, you can be mature, but still have fun in your life." I said to him and he looked at me. "Considering that this issue has changed me from the person I used to be, I'll work at it, but I can't make any promises, and you know that I want to live without these lunatic Socs after me because of what had happened last month." he said and Two-bit looked at him. "You may tough, but you're the youngest member of the gang and we'll make sure that their lives are going to be hell if they try this again." he said and the rest of us nodded as we turned back to the book, since if I was right it was about to reach the first attack and how close he came to getting his throat cut and the thought made me want to take these guys apart for that.

_Anyway, I kept walking thinking about the movie and suddenly wished I had some company, Greasers can't walk alone too much or they get jumped or someone will walk up to them and yell 'Greaser' at them, which doesn't make you feel too hot if you know what I mean. We get jumped by the Socs, I'm not sure how you spell it, but' the abbreviation for the Socials, the jet-set, the west-side rich kids, it's like the term Greaser which is used to class all us boys on the east-side. We're poorer than the Socs. I reckon we're wilder too. Not like the Socs who jump Greasers, and wreck houses, and beer-blasts for fun. Or get editorials in the paper for being a public menace one day and a asset to society the next._

_"_Yeah and while we have to deal with their issues, my brother and two friends were driven out of town because they almost killed our brother!" Soda snapped pissed while Steve, Tim and Curly were looking annoyed as well. "I should have just kept you home that night, than none of this would have happened in the first place." I said and Pony looked at me and sighed. "You think that Dally would have lasted long if Bob had tried to murder Johnny instead of me, he would have killed Bob and then raped Cherry because she was the reason that Bob attacked us and he would have died anyway, with or without the amount of pain he was in." he said and as I thought it over I realized that he was right.

"Right after I was jumped the first time he said that now that he was out he was going to go after the guy who had nearly killed Johnny and left that scar on his cheek. And even if he didn't, what happened would have happened anyway. It's over and now we can finally move on, let's get to this." he added and we all nodded as we turned back to the book I was thinking of the main reason for why Dally had committed suicide by cop and knew that he done so-so he could be with Johnny since he loved Johnny like a brother.

_Greasers are almost like hoods, we steal things and drive souped up old cars, hold up gas-stations and have a gang fight once in a while. I don't mean that I do things like that, Darry would kill me if I got into trouble with the police. Since mom and dad were killed in an auto accident, the three of us can stay together as long as we behave. I just mean that most Greasers do things like that, just like we wear our hair long and wear blue jeans and T-shirts, or leave our shirt tails sticking out and wear leather jackets and tennis shoes or boots. I'm not saying that either Greasers or Socs are better, that's just the way things are. _

_If I had thought about it, I could have just waited for Darry and Soda to get off work and they would have gone with me, driven me there or walked along, though Soda can't sit still long enough to enjoy a movie and they bore Darry to death, he thinks that his life is enough without inspecting others or one of the gang, one of the four boys that we hang around with and consider family, when you grow up in a tight-knit neighborhood like ours you get to know each other real well. If I had thought of it really hard I could have just called Darry and he would have come by on his way home from work, and have him pick me up or gotten Two-Bit Matthews- one of our gang- would have come to get me in his car if I had asked him to, but some-times I just don't you my head. It drives my brother Darry nuts when I do things like that, cause I am supposed to be smart; I mean I make good grades and have high IQ and everything, but some-times I just don't use my head, besides I like walking. _

_I almost decided that I didn't like it too much when I saw that red cor-vair trailing me. I had seen Johnny when four Socs had gotten a hold of him and it wasn't pretty. Johnny was scared of his own shadow after that. Johnny was six-teen then. I was a few blocks from home so I started walking a bit faster._

If I had been paying attention when he had told me there would have been trouble, I would have killed the guys that had attacked him that day and I knew that the others would have done the same. As a gang our main rule was stick together and we had agreed to look out for the youngest of our gang and this issue was the starting point for what was going to become a living hell and scaring the hell out of all four of us that week. I loved my baby brother and was proud of him, but having those Socs hurt him, meant one thing and one thing only for the rest of us and that was that there was going to be a gang war because some people who did not when to quit had finally gone too far and nearly killed my brother and cost the lives of two other members of our gang.


End file.
